Anne of Green Gables (by Lucy Maud Montgomery)

(Amazon UK link)

After finishing my re-reading of the ‘Emily’ books by Lucy Maud Montgomery last month, I decided I would reread her better-known series, starting with ‘Anne of Green Gables’.  I was slightly surprised to find that I reread this older children’s/teenage classic as recently as 2018, on my Kindle. But although I remembered the basic outline of the book - one I have read several times over the decades - and most of the characters, I had still forgotten a lot of the detail.

I hadn’t, however, forgotten the wonderfully written first paragraph of the book, describing a brook that twists and turns until it reaches Rachel Lynde’s house. There it runs entirely smoothly; not even a brook could misbehave in front of Mrs Lynde. It’s an excellent example of ‘showing’ rather than ‘telling’ a person’s character, although it could easily be missed: it doesn’t really make a very exciting start to the book, and is probably the longest single sentence I’ve ever come across.

Rachel Lynde isn’t the most important adult in the book. Her friends Matthew and Marilla, a brother and sister in their early sixties, are the real heroes. Marilla works hard to look after her house, Green Gables, while Matthew works on the farm. The story is set in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island. He’s a reticent man, but realises he’s getting older and can’t manage on his own. So, after discussion with Marilla, they decide to adopt an 11-year-old orphan boy from an orphanage. In 1925, when this book was published, adoption was evidently a rather more straightforward procedure than it is these days.

Unfortunately, the message they sent became muddled, and when Matthew goes to the train station to meet the child, she’s a girl - 11-year-old Anne. She’s thin, and quite plain, with red hair which she dislikes heartily. But she has an amazing imagination, and beguiles the tedium of the journey back to Green Gables with commentary on the scenery, and the things and people she has imagined, and her absolute delight at the thought of being adopted…

Matthew is completely smitten, but it takes Marilla a little longer before she decides that they might as well keep Anne, and teach her some domestic duties. Little hints of Anne’s past keep coming up - she doesn’t complain, but it’s clear that her life has been far from easy. And when neighbours - including Rachel Lynde - tell Marilla that she’s making a mistake, she’s determined to prove them wrong.

Most of the book charts incidents in Anne’s life as she gradually adapts to her new home, makes friends, goes to school, and learns more about herself and the world about her. It’s beautifully written; there’s a tad more description than I like, but it’s easy enough to skim. Anne’s imagination makes everything beautiful, but she does sometimes use it in ways that have negative repercussions. She’s also extremely hot-tempered, quick to react to everything.

The characters are drawn in a way that makes them feel entirely three-dimensional. I could almost feel Marilla, determined to quench most of Anne’s flights of fancy, as they are so foreign to her. Marilla becomes quite as attached to Anne as her brother does, but she has no way to express it, and has a terrible fear of spoiling her. So she makes her clothes plain, and restricts her from going out too much. It dampens Anne’s spirits, although her imagination keeps her going - but it’s done for the best of reasons. 

As Anne gradually matures, and learns from her mistakes, so Marilla starts to soften. She acknowledges Anne’s good points, and is even able to feel some pride in her achievements, though she rarely expresses this verbally. I loved seeing the changes in them both, and - as before - felt as if they were people I knew.  I had tears in my eyes more than once, including a chapter towards the end where something tragic happens; it’s foreshadowed more than once, and I knew it was coming, but it still made me choke up. 

But the most moving scenes are those when people voluntarily give something up as a demonstration of their love for someone else. They’re very well done, I thought.  The style and setting are inevitably a bit old-fashioned, but the emotions, the ethics and the people are as realistic today as they would have been a hundred years ago.

Highly recommended for older children or teenagers; this is now a classic and is available in many forms, including ebooks and ‘independently published’ versions, as it’s out of copyright. Enjoyable for adults, too.

Review copyright 2026 Sue's Book Reviews